Quick verdict: which UK shop should pick which
Tipping point: ~£3,500-£5,000/month revenue. Below this, Shopify wins on simplicity. Above, WooCommerce wins on cost-per-sale and ownership.
| UK monthly revenue | Recommendation | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| £0-£3,000 | Shopify Basic | Cheaper setup, faster to launch, less to maintain |
| £3,000-£20,000 | Either: depends on team | Cost roughly tied; pick based on team capability |
| £20,000+ | WooCommerce | Lower transaction fees compound; ownership matters at scale |
5-year total cost of ownership comparison
Small UK shop (£5,000/mo revenue average)
| Item | Shopify Basic | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee/yr | £420 | £0 (hosting £300-£500) |
| Transaction fees (Shopify Payments) | 2.4% + 25p = £1,440/yr | 1.4% + 25p (Stripe) = £840/yr |
| Build cost (one-off) | £500-£2,000 | £499-£2,500 |
| Apps/plugins/yr | £300-£900 | £200-£600 |
| 5-year TCO | £11,300-£13,400 | £7,700-£10,200 |
Mid-size UK shop (£20,000/mo revenue average)
| Item | Shopify Advanced | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee/yr | £3,588 | £0 (managed hosting £1,200-£2,400) |
| Transaction fees | 2.1% + 25p = £5,040/yr | 1.4% + 25p = £3,360/yr |
| Apps/plugins/yr | £800-£2,400 | £500-£1,500 |
| 5-year TCO | £47,140-£55,140 | £26,300-£36,300 |
WooCommerce saves £20k-£25k over 5 years at this revenue level.
UK VAT handling: both work, differently
Shopify Tax (built-in)
Automatic VAT calculation for UK customers. Reverse-charge handling for EU B2B. Free with Shopify subscription. Configures in 10 minutes.
WooCommerce VAT
Free with core for basic UK VAT. Plugin needed for: digital goods VAT (MOSS), reverse-charge, multiple VAT rates. Plugin cost £30-£99/year. Setup 30-60 minutes.
Both platforms handle UK VAT registration threshold (£85,000 in 2026) correctly. Above the threshold, both require accurate VAT settings.
UK GDPR + cookie compliance
Shopify GDPR
Built-in cookie banner. Customer data export. Right to be forgotten via support ticket. Adequate for most UK SME shops.
WooCommerce GDPR
Plugin-based. CookieYes, Complianz, or WP-GDPR Compliance — all £0-£99/year. More control over what data is collected and shared. Adequate to enterprise-grade depending on plugin choice.
Features at parity in 2026
Both platforms now handle:
- Multi-currency display + payment
- Multi-language sites
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Customer accounts
- Subscriptions (Shopify Subscriptions / WooCommerce Subscriptions)
- Gift cards
- Discount codes
- Inventory management
- Multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, social commerce)
The platform-feature gap that existed in 2018-2020 has largely closed. Pick on cost and ownership, not features.
Where each genuinely wins
Shopify wins on
- Speed to launch (days vs weeks)
- App ecosystem polish (slightly easier than WooCommerce plugins)
- Customer support (UK business hours phone)
- POS integration (Shopify POS is best-in-class for UK retail)
- Default mobile responsiveness
WooCommerce wins on
- Lower transaction fees (saves at scale)
- Full data ownership
- Customisation depth (PHP plugin ecosystem)
- SEO ceiling (full control over technical SEO)
- No platform lock-in
Migration cost: switching platforms later
Shopify to WooCommerce
£500-£3,000 for a UK SME shop. Tools like Cart2Cart automate most product/customer/order data migration. The challenge is theme rebuild and app/plugin re-implementation.
WooCommerce to Shopify
£500-£3,000 similarly. Same data migration tools work in reverse. App/plugin re-implementation is the biggest cost.
The migration cost is the reason this decision deserves thought upfront. Switching costs £500-£3,000 plus 4-12 weeks of disruption.
Worked example: UK fashion brand at £15k/mo
If on Shopify
- Shopify Advanced: £299/mo
- Transaction fees @ 2.1%: £315/mo
- Apps (Klaviyo, reviews, etc.): £150/mo
- Theme + customisation amortised: £50/mo
- Total: £814/mo
If on WooCommerce
- Managed WP hosting: £100/mo
- Stripe @ 1.4%: £210/mo
- Plugins (subscriptions, reviews, etc.): £80/mo
- Maintenance retainer: £150/mo
- Total: £540/mo
WooCommerce saves £274/mo at this revenue (£3,288/year). Worth the slightly higher complexity.
UK-specific features that tip the balance
Most international comparisons miss the UK-specific factors that actually matter for British shops.
UK VAT and Making Tax Digital
HMRC’s Making Tax Digital initiative requires digital VAT records and submissions for UK businesses over the £85,000 threshold. Shopify integrates directly with Xero and QuickBooks for MTD-compliant VAT records. WooCommerce needs a plugin (WooCommerce Tax, Avalara, or similar) — adds £100-£400/year cost.
UK payment methods beyond cards
UK consumers increasingly use: Klarna (BNPL), Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Open Banking direct transfers. Shopify supports all of these natively with Shopify Payments. WooCommerce needs separate plugins for each, costing £30-£100/year per method.
UK delivery options
Royal Mail, Hermes/Evri, DPD, ParcelForce all have UK-specific integrations. Both platforms support all major UK carriers via plugins. Shopify Shipping (Shopify-integrated) typically gets 15-25% discounted rates with Royal Mail and Evri.
Click & Collect at UK retail
If you have a physical UK store, both platforms support click-and-collect. Shopify POS is more polished for in-person UK retail. WooCommerce POS plugins exist but are less consistent.
Real UK shop case studies
Allbirds UK
Switched from Shopify Plus to a custom build at scale ($20M+ revenue). Shopify Plus served them well from £0 to scale; custom became cheaper at very high volume.
Patch Plants (UK)
Built on Shopify; growth story includes the platform staying out of the way as they scaled.
UK fashion brands (mid-market)
Mixed pattern: smaller brands typically Shopify, mid-market £5-£20M revenue often WooCommerce + Magento mix, large brands custom.
The migration nightmare both sides understate
What official “migration tools” don’t cover
- Custom theme code (re-built from scratch)
- App/plugin configurations (re-set on the destination)
- Integrations with non-store systems (CRM, accounting, fulfilment)
- SEO redirects from old URL structure to new
- Customer email histories and segmentation rules
- Subscription product configurations
Real UK migration cost
- Tool-based data migration: £100-£500
- Theme rebuild: £500-£3,000
- App/plugin re-implementation: £500-£2,000
- Integration reconfiguration: £200-£1,500
- SEO migration (301 redirects, schema, sitemap): £200-£800
- Testing and launch: £200-£500
- Total: £1,700-£8,300 for a typical UK SME shop
SEO ceiling comparison
Shopify SEO limitations
- URL structure is rigid (/products/, /collections/, /pages/ enforced)
- Robots.txt is partially editable (in 2026, more flexible than 2020 but still limited)
- Limited control over hreflang setup for multi-language UK shops
- Built-in blog is functional but less flexible than WordPress
WooCommerce SEO ceiling
- Full URL structure control
- Complete robots.txt and meta robots control
- Full schema markup customisation
- WordPress blog provides best-in-class content SEO platform
- Higher ceiling but requires technical SEO knowledge or agency
For UK shops dependent on organic search (content + product SEO), WooCommerce typically delivers 20-40% higher organic traffic ceiling than equivalent Shopify implementations.
What to commit to before choosing
Before deciding, get clarity on:
- Your 12-month and 36-month revenue projections (affects break-even calculation)
- Whether you have or plan to have a content marketing/SEO programme
- How custom your customer experience needs to be (Shopify limits custom checkout, WooCommerce doesn’t)
- Your in-house technical capability or agency relationship
- Your data ownership / vendor-lock-in preferences
The decision is rarely “obvious” — it’s a values trade-off. Pick deliberately, not by default.
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Sources & Further Reading
- Shopify UK Tax setup — Shopify
- WooCommerce Documentation — WooCommerce
- UK VAT registration — gov.uk
- UK GDPR — ICO
Frequently asked questions
WooCommerce or Shopify for a UK shop? +
Shopify under £3,000/mo revenue (cheaper to start). WooCommerce over £20,000/mo revenue (saves £20k+ over 5 years at scale). Between £3k-£20k/mo: pick based on team capability and growth plans.
Does Shopify charge UK VAT correctly? +
Yes via Shopify Tax, free with subscription. Configures in 10 minutes. Handles UK VAT threshold (£85,000) and reverse-charge for EU B2B correctly.
How hard is WooCommerce to maintain? +
Moderate: needs hosting (£100-£200/mo managed), plugin updates monthly, occasional debugging when plugins conflict. Shopify handles all this for you at higher cost. Most UK SMEs find £100-£150/mo maintenance retainer covers WooCommerce upkeep.
What's the migration cost between platforms? +
£500-£3,000 for a UK SME shop. Tools like Cart2Cart automate data migration. The challenge is theme rebuild + app/plugin re-implementation. Worth thinking upfront before committing.
Which has better UK support? +
Shopify has UK-business-hours phone support included. WooCommerce relies on community + your developer/agency. For non-technical owners, Shopify support reduces stress; for owners with WordPress experience, the difference is minimal.
